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Saturday, December 08, 2007

Is Super Bowl Bid A Priority?

The outgoing president of the city's convention and visitor's association, Bob Bedell, announced on Friday the city would be putting in another bid to host a Super Bowl. According to a Star report, Mayor-elect Greg Ballard supports the effort. Earlier this year, the city's efforts to lure the 2011 Super Bowl lost out to Dallas, which will have a much larger stadium than the new Lucas Oil Stadium scheduled to open in August. This is a bid for the 2012 Super Bowl, which has an April 1 deadline for bid submissions.

"Mayor-elect Greg Ballard supports the idea of bringing a Super Bowl to Indianapolis and will appoint a person from his administration to help the city prepare its bid," the story reads. "The mayor-elect is a big supporter of it," said Robert Vane, a Ballard spokesman. However, Abdul Hakim Shabazz suggests Bedell blind-sided Ballard with the announcement. "What you may not know is that when Bedell made the announcement he did not clear it with the Mayor-elect’s office first," Shabazz writes. "And jumped the gun before calling Ballard."

The real question should be what is our number one priority. Negotiating a deal to host a Super Bowl five years into the future, which requires our local community to pony up tens of millions of dollars to entertain the super wealthy? Or resolving the financial crisis facing the operations of the Lucas Oil Stadium. Mayor Peterson is leaving behind a decision over how to find nearly $10 million which will be needed to annually maintain and operate the new stadium. Someone should be trying to figure out how to put an end to greedy NFL team owners practicing shake downs in cities across America to line their own pockets at the expense of taxpayers, who are forced to subsidize their private ventures in order to keep a team in their city.

"For the sake of economic development in this city, we should all hope that we make it a priority and receive the 2012 Super Bowl. The effects will last for years."

And what proof do you have of that? There is no existing data that indicates that hosting a Superbowl has any short-term or long-term impact on host cities (other than paying the bills resulting therefrom).

Indianaplois built a new stadium that is already too small, by NFL standards. We have Bart and his band of (alleged) thieves to thank for that. In an effort to get a Superbowl, Indy will need another new stadium. This time, Irsay can pay for it, put it a neighboring county, where the people can afford it.

We've covered this before. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue told lawmakers the city would get the first available Super Bowl bid if it entered into the new stadium deal with the Colts. That promise was quickly forgotten with Taglabue's departure. The bar has been raised again. It's not enough we pumped $700 million into the new stadium. We have to cough up another $50 million in incentives to these greedy NFL team owners to even have consideration for a Super Bowl bid. Take that damn money the business community is willing to raise for this effort and put it to a use which will actually benefit the community at large. The plan for the Super Bowl basically called for closing off a big part of the downtown area and limiting its access to Super Bowl attendees from out of town. Local commoners will be told to stay away, while the out of town corporate elites entertain in style on our public improvements at our expense. This nonsense has got to stop, and it has to stop now. We have much higher priorities upon which we must begin focusing our attention if we have any hope of turning this city around.

If the Super Bowl is such a bad deal, why are virtually all of the cities with large enough facilities fighting each other to get it? Why are others building facilities to get one? The residual from conventions lasts for years. That translates into lots of airport taxes, room taxes, car rental taxes, food and beverage taxes, and sales taxes paid by visitors for years.

Indianaplois built a new stadium that is already too small, by NFL standards. Explains why other cities are building bigger stadiums.This time, Irsay can pay for itOther team owners pay for a portion, if not all of their stadiums. Is Indy the only city that paid for the WHOLE thing while giving the team owner all the profits???(I don't know for certain, can someone verify this?)

Is Bart still sticking by the story that Irsay didn't threaten to move the Colts?I find it hard to believe, with that sweetheart of a deal.Bart just helping out his drug addicted,(oxy-contin, I think it was) multi-millionaire buddy/campaign contributor.

If the Super Bowl is such a bad deal, why are virtually all of the cities with large enough facilities fighting each other to get it? Why are others building facilities to get one?

Are you kidding me? The elected leaders in this country are like mini-Caesars. They all want something to make them more elite, more powerful, more well-known, etc. etc.. Plus, the NFL is huge, so huge that the sheeple die-hard fans will vote for anyone who helps their one precious thing in life: "FUTBAW!" This country is following the same path as the Roman Empire. They no longer exist, and someday, never will the United States. You can continue to nickel and dime the citizens, but eventually there will be no more nickels and dimes left to take, without serious consequences. Anyone paying "their fair share" in taxes is a fool. All your doing is providing for the elite and making them richer.

I have to tell you, Indianapolis will NEVER be thought of as a place to hold a convention. So why a Super Bowl. The city is a third level convention city. I can tell you it is the place you go when there is no place left to go or you have a tie or headquarters in the city. You will never hear, "Where should we hold our next meeting?" "Indianapolis!" NOT!

The NFL owners will put their Super Bowl whereever they think they will personally have the most enjoyable time. They are all mega-rich already and don't give a hoot whether some powdunk town will roll out the red carpet and want to wine and dine them. If the Super Bowl is played in Indianapolis it depends completely on how much all the other good ol' boys are pals with Jim Irsay and want to party at his place that year. If people think that they can lure the super bowl here otherwise they are wasting their time no matter how much money they budget for it. So quit whining. This boat will float when the tide comes in.

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